NENA 2019 was definitely one for the record books. This year the conference was held in sunny Orlando, Florida and the excitement generated around the office from last year’s NENA experience definitely did not disappoint. This year, both Virtual Academy and Degree Advantage were represented at NENA in the Expo Hall at our booth. This allowed us to not only communicate with attendees about the great things we are doing in the world of 9-1-1 and Telecommunicator training, but also allowed us to give them information about how they could earn a college degree by utilizing the training they’ve already completed. Win-Win!

And speaking of attendees…there were lots of them! This year over 2,000 attendees made the trip to Florida to expand their horizons and learn more about their profession. In the Expo Hall we were able to have conversations with many of the attendees and give them more information about what Virtual Academy and Degree Advantage could offer them and the rest of the staff in their PSAP back home. As a part of our booth, we offered the attendees free access to three of our best Telecommunications courses that are presently offered through Virtual Academy. This will allow them to see how the online training is delivered and hopefully will allow them to see the relevance of the topics and the quality of the training. Plus, who doesn’t love getting free stuff!

The Expo Hall wasn’t where we spent all of our time during the course of the conference. We were also able to attend some of the breakout sessions that were offered throughout the week. We were not only able to listen in on some interesting topics, but we were also able to bring back some ideas for new Virtual Academy courses and pinpoint some potential subject matter experts for those new courses. We also hosted a dinner one night and invited some of our closest (or soon to be closest) friends to join us! We enjoyed a night of fun and fellowship and strengthened old friendships and created new ones as well! But it wasn’t all business at NENA 2019 – the conference committee made sure that the attendees also had a lot of fun while they were in Orlando. From the opening 80’s themed kick-off celebration on the first night to the closing celebration at BB King’s Orlando on the last night, there was plenty of fun to be had.  Although NENA 2019 is in the books (and the ink is just now drying on those pages!), we are already looking forward to NENA 2020. This will be a conference that we will continue to support in the years to come and are excited to see the outcome of the partnerships and connections we were able to foster and create. Hopefully, we’ll see you in Long Beach, California for NENA 2020!